RCMP seek letter from former Pamela Wallin aide

OTTAWA — A letter the RCMP are seeking from a former aide about Sen. Pamela Wallin makes unflattering allegations about the embattled senator’s spending habits and professional conduct.

The allegations by former Wallin aide Alison Stodin were swiftly dismissed Sunday by Wallin’s lawyer, who noted they came from “a former disgruntled employee.”

The August 2012 letter, obtained by Postmedia News, is part of a long list of documents the RCMP is seeking as part of its investigation into Wallin’s spending.

Stodin was hired by Wallin in June 2012 and dismissed six weeks later.

She allegedly sent the letter about her former boss to Sen. Carolyn Stewart-Olsen after her firing because she was concerned for her professional reputation. At the time, Stewart-Olsen was a member of the Senate’s standing committee on internal economy. Stewart-Olsen declined to comment on the letter Sunday, including what, if anything she might have done with it.

In the letter, Stodin raised concerns about Wallin’s conduct toward her, which she said escalated after Wallin discovered Stodin had reviewed the senator’s expense accounts with the Senate Finance Department. “I have never been subjected to the kind of treatment and disrespect I received from Senator Wallin,” Stodin wrote in the letter.

Stodin alleged Wallin would often accuse her of double-booking flights and events, although Stodin said no evidence was found of this.

She wrote that Wallin’s “personal attacks on me and my reputation started to be ramped up right after I told her on Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 that I was returning from a meeting with the Senate Finance Department where we had been working on reconciling outstanding American Express accounts and travel expenses.”

Wallin fired Stodin on Aug. 22, 2012, “stating incompetence, and inability to run her schedule,” the letter states.

On Friday, court documents revealed Stodin’s letter is one of dozens of records sought by the RCMP in its investigation of fraud and breach of trust allegations against Wallin.

Wallin’s lawyer, Terrence O’Sullivan, said in an email Sunday that Stodin was fired during her probationary period after “several performance issues.” He noted that Deloitte auditors who did an independent study of Wallin’s expenses had advised a Senate sub-committee “that they did not rely on the evidence of a former disgruntled employee.”

“There was no abuse of Ms. Stodin by Senator Wallin,” he said.

On Friday, O’Sullivan told Postmedia News he was not concerned about what the RCMP might find in its investigation. “We believe that an objective review of all the evidence will demonstrate that there was no attempt to defraud the people of Canada,” he said.

Stewart-Olsen declined to comment on the letter Sunday “because it is the subject of a police investigation.”

Jessica is the 2013-14 Michelle Lang Fellow with Postmedia News. She's on a one-year adventure working out of Ottawa and Calgary covering national politics, news and chipping away at a special project... read more on the relationship between work and personal identity in Canada's rapidly changing economy.View author's profile